The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live In Texas

When The Rolling Stones staged a “comeback” with 1978’s “Miss You,” prevailing wisdom was they’d jumped on the disco train with the song’s steady, propulsive drumbeat. With that hit and new album Some Girls, the Stones toured the U.S. But as is revealed on this new DVD of an incendiary show from that tour – in Fort Worth – the Stones were really influenced by punk. At least at this no-frills gig, where Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood and the rhythm section barrel through songs with a scruffy speed and intuitive chord-change precision that’s far closer to The Ramones than aging 1960s-rock superstars. And the Some Girls songs that get this treatment – “Shattered,” “Beast of Burden,” “When the Whip Comes Down,” even the cover of The Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” – have that same artless organic looseness, that tough rock-ensemble naturalism, of Exile on Main St. Even “Miss You” is set free. (The fake country of “Far Away Eyes” still sounds strained, however.) And then there’s Mick Jagger. He starts the show wearing a hideous red cap and flaunting exaggerated, corny dance moves, but the music hits him once he doffs the headgear and jacket. Wearing a “destroy” T-shirt, and playing rhythm guitar on some songs, he uses his forceful voice and high energy to connect with the others as an equal partner. By the time he’s stripped off that sweaty shirt to sing and dance to “Brown Sugar” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” there’s not an ounce of fat on his torso or his stage act.